Scan barcode
lsparrow's review against another edition
4.0
this book is a selection of some of the diaries of Anne Lister. since it was written as a personal diary it may not be the most literary of works - however from a historical perspective it gives a very interesting look at life in that time. Also to have some lesbian history recorded is so amazing. And although the language and expressions may be different there are many common experiences that cross time.
lezreadalot's review against another edition
5.0
‘Burnt Mr Montagu’s farewell verses that no trace of any man’s admiration may remain. It is not meet for me. I love and only love the fairer sex and thus, beloved by them in turn, my heart revolts from any other love than theirs.’
Loved it, loved it, loved it.
Having watched the show Gentleman Jack and fallen in love with Anne, I knew I would want to read the diaries that inspired it. This first account, taken from the years 1816-1824, and therefore long before the show even begins, tells us so much about the woman Anne was, the woman she was becoming, her triumphs and her disappointments and the loves in her life. Historical lesbian romance is my favourite genre, being a lesbian who loves romance novels and history and seeing oneself in books. And though this is obviously not a romance, it still satisfied so very deeply the part of me that just... LOVES seeing this type of love and knowing that it has always existed, no matter what other people think/say on the subject. Seeing her desire women, yearn to be loved by them in return, the way she presented, the way she reacted when encountering other lesbian women out in the wild... I loved it so much!
I couldn't help but compare it to the show, and I really think that in casting and writing they did a perfect job of bringing life to this fascinating, accomplished, intelligent, deeply flawed woman. And I do mean deeply flawed; Anne is no candidate for lesbian of the year. She was extremely classist, a monarchist to the bone, could be selfish and manipulative, super obsessed with upward advancement and how she was seen by 'good society', had some whack ideas about women (she was totally against universal suffrage). But she was also kind and loving and generous and gallant and very fair minded in a way I didn't expect. She took absolutely no shit from men (and they tried to give her a lot; the harassment that she faced for acting and dressing the way she did was horrendous) and was super clever and voracious about learning.
This selection from her journals covers a period after Mariana was already married, but they were still closely attached, and details her entanglements with Mariana Lawton, Anne Belcombe, Isabella Norcliffe, her infatuation with Maria Browne, and a wealth of details about her family relationships and the friends and acquaintances she cultivated. Ann doesn't appear very much, but appear she does! It was also very interesting just as a historical read, to get to learn little things about the time period: food, culture, money matters, travelling, etc.
Great great read, I really look forward to reading the other volumes.
However, I will never fear. Be firm. Learn to have nerve to protect myself & make the best of all things. [...] Pray against this & for God’s protection & blessing, & then face the days undaunted.
Loved it, loved it, loved it.
Having watched the show Gentleman Jack and fallen in love with Anne, I knew I would want to read the diaries that inspired it. This first account, taken from the years 1816-1824, and therefore long before the show even begins, tells us so much about the woman Anne was, the woman she was becoming, her triumphs and her disappointments and the loves in her life. Historical lesbian romance is my favourite genre, being a lesbian who loves romance novels and history and seeing oneself in books. And though this is obviously not a romance, it still satisfied so very deeply the part of me that just... LOVES seeing this type of love and knowing that it has always existed, no matter what other people think/say on the subject. Seeing her desire women, yearn to be loved by them in return, the way she presented, the way she reacted when encountering other lesbian women out in the wild... I loved it so much!
I couldn't help but compare it to the show, and I really think that in casting and writing they did a perfect job of bringing life to this fascinating, accomplished, intelligent, deeply flawed woman. And I do mean deeply flawed; Anne is no candidate for lesbian of the year. She was extremely classist, a monarchist to the bone, could be selfish and manipulative, super obsessed with upward advancement and how she was seen by 'good society', had some whack ideas about women (she was totally against universal suffrage). But she was also kind and loving and generous and gallant and very fair minded in a way I didn't expect. She took absolutely no shit from men (and they tried to give her a lot; the harassment that she faced for acting and dressing the way she did was horrendous) and was super clever and voracious about learning.
This selection from her journals covers a period after Mariana was already married, but they were still closely attached, and details her entanglements with Mariana Lawton, Anne Belcombe, Isabella Norcliffe, her infatuation with Maria Browne, and a wealth of details about her family relationships and the friends and acquaintances she cultivated. Ann doesn't appear very much, but appear she does! It was also very interesting just as a historical read, to get to learn little things about the time period: food, culture, money matters, travelling, etc.
Great great read, I really look forward to reading the other volumes.
However, I will never fear. Be firm. Learn to have nerve to protect myself & make the best of all things. [...] Pray against this & for God’s protection & blessing, & then face the days undaunted.
hrjones's review against another edition
4.0
Most historic accounts of women who had same-sex desires or relationships with women show us only an outside observer's account. The motivations and feelings of the women involved are typically known only via their reports to others--a context where self-editing and self-censoring can be expected. This is why a record such as Anne Lister's can be so ground-breaking to our understanding.
Lister's diaries were never meant for any reader but herself. Key passages were encoded in a cipher to ensure privacy. And she engaged in deep and ruthless self-examination of her life and her desires, which is not to say that she was always successful at being honest with herself. This is no angel or saint. She was a snob. She regularly was less than honest with those around her, not only to protect her reputation but for all the usual casual purposes that grease the wheels of social interaction. Her notions of sexual fidelity are quite flexible. And even when she tries to be forthright with those closest to her about her long-term life plans, she flip-flops in her own heart so often that her messages are not merely mixed, they are pureed and homogenized.
Whitbread has edited two volumes of Lister's diaries, deciphering the writing, decoding the cipher, and excerpting the portions that provide a detailed view of her life and thoughts.
Lister's diaries were never meant for any reader but herself. Key passages were encoded in a cipher to ensure privacy. And she engaged in deep and ruthless self-examination of her life and her desires, which is not to say that she was always successful at being honest with herself. This is no angel or saint. She was a snob. She regularly was less than honest with those around her, not only to protect her reputation but for all the usual casual purposes that grease the wheels of social interaction. Her notions of sexual fidelity are quite flexible. And even when she tries to be forthright with those closest to her about her long-term life plans, she flip-flops in her own heart so often that her messages are not merely mixed, they are pureed and homogenized.
Whitbread has edited two volumes of Lister's diaries, deciphering the writing, decoding the cipher, and excerpting the portions that provide a detailed view of her life and thoughts.
manoushp109's review against another edition
3.5
read only the diary for the year 1816-1817 for class: rly interesting and good :D i never knew how many lesbians there were in the 1800s also anne is kinda funny even if i think she’s a bit problematic at times
aineg's review against another edition
2.0
Maybe if I was a historian this might have been of interest but for an entertaining read is was one boring slog. Having enjoyed the BBC series I looked forward to reading more about Anne Lister but the diaries are so mundane and uninteresting that they don't expand on what I already know about her.
ikahime's review against another edition
4.0
Totally fascinating. Was introduced like most people to Anne Lister via the BBC show Gentleman Jack, but am now jumping down the rabbit hole of all things Anne. I feel like Anne is the role model I wished I had known about, but grew up to be anyway. Can't wait to read more of her journals, as this one ends in her early 30s.
richardr's review against another edition
(This covers both editions of Anne Lister's diaries.)
One of the oddities about reading Anne Lister is gaining an insight into someone who created an identity entirely sui generis and how that is to be compared to how we see sexuality and gender now. That identity is certainly striking, amounting to a frank declaration that Lister only loved women and that the thought of sexual attraction to men was repulsive to her. If her sexuality is clear enough, her gender is perhaps less so. A plaque placed at a church where she and Ann Walker had pledged themselves to each other drew criticism for calling her 'gender non-conforming'and omitting the word 'lesbian' but there's no real way to be certain whuch description is more accurate. Lister certainly presented as masculine (with one lover being uncomfortable with the presence of a moustache) while Frued would have relished statements like 'If I had a penis, tho’ of but small length, I should surely break the ice some of these times.' This comes up on multiple occasions as when she is 'Thinking of Mrs Milne. Fancying I had a penis & was intriguing with her in the downstairs water-closet at Langton before breakfast, to which she would have made no objection.' Earlier she contemplates 'Supposing myself in men’s clothes & having a penis, tho’ nothing more.' The converse is also true, that she had an aversion to 'anything that reminded me of my petticoats.'
The pictures continues to be complex when one considers the social and political context. Lister was a landowner and accordingly held distinctly conservative views at a time when rioting and dissent were far from uncommon in Yorkshire. As well as being opposed to reform, she can equally be something of a prude, writing that a theatrical performance was 'beyond anything I could have imagined it possible to bring forward on the stage, particularly the Thèâtre Français. Certainly not a scene for English ladies.' A modern reader can't help but find it odd that a conversation between Lister and one of the Ladies of Llangollen consisted of decrying Lucretius on the grounds that 'He was a deistical writer... she knew he was heterodox. I observed that she might think all the classics objectionable.' The most striking comment is her denunciation of a man on the grounds that 'To me his voice is so feminine as to be distressing – the more striking because his appearance is not [at] all so.' The sole concession to liberalism in the diaries is an endorsement of the view that girls could be educated to the same capacity as boys, especially given that somuch of the diaries consist of Lister's autodidactism. Quite frequently she sees her relationships as essentially that of man and wife (although if this is how Maria Barlow saw it she was nonetheless relegated to the role of mistress). As such, Lister writes 'In plain English, she was too much like a mistress. She was not my wife.... On returning up the new bank, a man said, ‘Are them man & wife?’ Marianna & I both coloured but she laughed & said she did not mind it, nor do I think she did.'
One of the oddities about reading Anne Lister is gaining an insight into someone who created an identity entirely sui generis and how that is to be compared to how we see sexuality and gender now. That identity is certainly striking, amounting to a frank declaration that Lister only loved women and that the thought of sexual attraction to men was repulsive to her. If her sexuality is clear enough, her gender is perhaps less so. A plaque placed at a church where she and Ann Walker had pledged themselves to each other drew criticism for calling her 'gender non-conforming'and omitting the word 'lesbian' but there's no real way to be certain whuch description is more accurate. Lister certainly presented as masculine (with one lover being uncomfortable with the presence of a moustache) while Frued would have relished statements like 'If I had a penis, tho’ of but small length, I should surely break the ice some of these times.' This comes up on multiple occasions as when she is 'Thinking of Mrs Milne. Fancying I had a penis & was intriguing with her in the downstairs water-closet at Langton before breakfast, to which she would have made no objection.' Earlier she contemplates 'Supposing myself in men’s clothes & having a penis, tho’ nothing more.' The converse is also true, that she had an aversion to 'anything that reminded me of my petticoats.'
The pictures continues to be complex when one considers the social and political context. Lister was a landowner and accordingly held distinctly conservative views at a time when rioting and dissent were far from uncommon in Yorkshire. As well as being opposed to reform, she can equally be something of a prude, writing that a theatrical performance was 'beyond anything I could have imagined it possible to bring forward on the stage, particularly the Thèâtre Français. Certainly not a scene for English ladies.' A modern reader can't help but find it odd that a conversation between Lister and one of the Ladies of Llangollen consisted of decrying Lucretius on the grounds that 'He was a deistical writer... she knew he was heterodox. I observed that she might think all the classics objectionable.' The most striking comment is her denunciation of a man on the grounds that 'To me his voice is so feminine as to be distressing – the more striking because his appearance is not [at] all so.' The sole concession to liberalism in the diaries is an endorsement of the view that girls could be educated to the same capacity as boys, especially given that somuch of the diaries consist of Lister's autodidactism. Quite frequently she sees her relationships as essentially that of man and wife (although if this is how Maria Barlow saw it she was nonetheless relegated to the role of mistress). As such, Lister writes 'In plain English, she was too much like a mistress. She was not my wife.... On returning up the new bank, a man said, ‘Are them man & wife?’ Marianna & I both coloured but she laughed & said she did not mind it, nor do I think she did.'
caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review against another edition
4.0
The Diaries of Anne Lister is definitely the oldest “lesbian” book I’ve read to date. I’m putting lesbian in quotation marks because what is actually the most fascinating things about the diary is how Anne Lister explores her attraction to women and her sexual identity in a time before sexuality was such a defining characteristic for our identities and before the word lesbian even existed with our contemporary understanding of it (if anyone as nerdy as me is wondering, “lesbian” was first used in 1890 as “female homosexual,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary—so it’s really a relatively new word!). Back to Anne Lister: she was an upper-class Englishwoman living in Halifax and Shibden Hall, West Yorkshire in the early 1800s who kept a very comprehensive diary of her life, a significant amount of which was written in a code that Lister herself had created....
see the rest of my review here: http://lesbrary.com/2012/04/20/casey-reviews-i-know-my-own-heart-the-diaries-of-anne-lister-1791-1840-edited-by-helena-whitbread/
see the rest of my review here: http://lesbrary.com/2012/04/20/casey-reviews-i-know-my-own-heart-the-diaries-of-anne-lister-1791-1840-edited-by-helena-whitbread/
cassandrat's review against another edition
4.0
The HBO show Gentleman Jack made me curious about the primary documents and recorded personality of Anne Lister. There are a few books with collections of her diaries, and this book gives about eight years of entries (1816-1824) of 25 to 33 year old Anne Lister and her many crushes. If you want to know more about the show, I recommend "Female Fortune Land, Gender and Authority The Anne Lister Diaries and OTher Writings, 1833-36". That publication has illustrations, background, and edits out the boring parts. It also starts with Anne's relationship with Ann Walker and her coal dealings. There is very little beyond love affars in 1816-1824. It was amazing how she seemed to fawn over a different woman every season and maintain so many relationships. I also noted that some events from the show were not concurrent at all. I recommend reading the diaries over a long period just every once in a while, because it gets a bit tedious. Most entries describe who she talked to each day, what reading or writing or studying she did, which woman she slept with or not, and mending clothes. I really liked that the coded portions are in italics. Anne seemed to code anything about money, mending underclothes, and sex.
tesch18's review against another edition
4.0
Took me 3.5 yrs to read, but worth it! It's a primary source, so not super compelling in of itself, but I'm very very glad I read it.